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[650] yeah but the blank slate with no picks, no young player worth a damn is kinda a problem , and as much as we laugh about he Laker brand attractive players, that seem to hold a lot more weight than the Knicks brand doing the same.

[650] yeah but the blank slate with no picks, no young player worth a damn is kinda a problem , and as much as we laugh about he Laker brand attractive players, that seem to hold a lot more weight than the Knicks brand doing the same.

Oh yes a problem! But a worse problem than a lousy team with historically high amounts of money tied up to a declining and never truly elite Melo?

I imagine that most of us in this thread are familiar with Grinnell basketball, why they're bizarre/unique/interesting. If not, google it (you'll find articles) and come back. Okay...
So, remember that dude for put up 138 in a game for them last year? He scored 109 tonight. Here's his career totals (he apparently only played in 12 games last season):

When I saw Grinnell play fellow conference teams a couple of times, I was totally appreciative of their style. It seemed cool and interesting, and you could see teams shifting strategies to deal with it.

But this playing barely extant unaffiliated colleges to get big point totals on the ESPN feed is just foul and despicable. I don't claim to know anything about Crossroads--whom they played tonight--but wikipedia says it has 180 students. Sending a guy to go for 100 against them? At a good, previously honorable liberal arts college? That should be a firing offense. I get why Duke and Stanford sell their souls. At least they value them highly. But Grinnell?

These games are a highlight for the lesser teams. Get to play a famous program? You never know, you might win...
...and a way for Grinnell to get national press, which might attract someone to play for the team.

(30 sec of searching implied that even keeping accreditation is no sure thing for Crossroads at this point.)

That FTA/FGA, given that 2/3rds of the FGA are threes is really confusing.

Jordan Hill came into tonight's game with 24.6 PER, and dropped a 24/17 on Detroit, on 11/16 shooting.

Detroit is pretty thin after the front line and Jennings, and those guys aren't that great. They have issues with perimeter D and as expected, floor spacing. But they have had a tough schedule and have one West Coast trip done.

Jennings threw an off-the-backboard-All-Star-style-alley-oop/pass to Drummond on a fast break in in the 2nd quarter.

I really did not expect Roy Hibbert to become this good when he was at Georgetown. He just threw in a running left handed hook and looked comfortable doing it. He's also either blocked or inhibited about 5 or 6 shot attempts, and it's still the first quarter.

I didn't expect him to be as good as he was last year, but he's gotten even better. He's turned into a Mark Eaton defensive presence while contributing on offense. He might be worthy of MVP consideration.

Checking in on LeBron... it's early, but injuries do appear to be affecting his stat line. He's averaging what would be a career worst per 36 in shots (16.4), offensive boards (0.5), steals (0.7, half his previous low), blocks (0.3, same), turnovers (3.9 - old high is 3.3), and his worst defensive board count since he was a rookie (4.9). Those numbers don't suggest superior athleticism, frankly.

What that tells me is that Lebron has decided to wait until the postseason to unleash his defensive energy.

The Knicks' suck. I'm tired of defending Carmelo. If they just would have targeted him and LeBron with their cap space (with a preference for LeBron, of course) this whole franchise would have been different. LeBron passed, you wait for Carmelo. But no..... they just had to have Stat. They had to make a move. It's the story of this ####### team under Dolan. Never do you say to yourself, "Man, the Knicks handled that one well." Never, never.

Now with Felton reverting, the Jeremy Lin saga is revealing itself to one and all as the disaster it always was. Nobody but Dolan would have even dreamed of not matching that offer sheet. And not matching had nothing to do with basketball. It never does.

Are you kidding? That is my dream.

The best thing for the franchise is to be awful this year, so Melo walks. They're going nowhere with him.

If this kind of year continues for Dwight, don't you have to kinda wonder if he was maybe more of a system guy? He's never really been the same since he got Van Gundy fired.

***

Just got finished with 5 games in 7 days at various NBA Arenas:
Phoenix: Dead-ass crowd, they overplay the music. Really nice customer service people.
Philadelphia: Really great pre-game intro (2nd best), the Braciole sandwich at their carvery is worth the price of admission. Spencer Hawes is much better than I thought he was.
New York Knicks: I saw the Melo 45 point game. Seemed to me that he got jobbed on not getting the continuation call. I know that everyone says it, and it's sort of a cliche, but Knicks fans were the best basketball fans I've seen.
Toronto Raptors: Surprisingly great place to see a game. Best trained arena staff in the league--you get the sense that people care. Also, surprisingly: the hottest women at any game. Finally, the grilled cheese sandwich place has Sriracha at the condiment stand! Way to go Toronto arena staff!
Chicago Bulls: Saw the game vs. Indy. People were saying that Rose was "back." It didn't really look that way to me, just looked like he hit a lot of 3s. The pre-game is still one of the best experiences in sports. Lights go down, Allan Parsons project comes up, people lose their ####. I haven't heard an arena get as loud as they did for D-Rose's intro. Best food in the Association.

tship - how is new msg vs old? are the changes noticable if you're a regular fan and not in one of the boxes?

sriracha rocks, although i don't think the neighbors next to that factory agree with it.

still give stan vg tons of props for how he handled the dwight fiasco. obv. he wouldn't get hired at a place like msg, but he 1) wouldn't lie 2) treated the 'business' part of coaching dwight different from the other stuff he knew was going on. that's a rare skill to have.

tship - how is new msg vs old? are the changes noticable if you're a regular fan and not in one of the boxes?

Well, the biggest, most obvious change is the new jumbotron--easily the best, most state of the art in the league.

I didn't go up to the catwalks, so can't comment. Concourses--renovation seems to have done some good, mostly fairly accessible, accessibility issues at halftime due to not placing stanchions for the lines for the mens room.

Re: "regular fan": I might not be the best person to ask, as I was in club seats in the lower bowl. Face was $300 for my ticket. I think the changes to the jumbotron would obviously be noticed by any fan.

Watched a college game last night. First one I've really sat down and watched. Man, it's unwatchable. Having to listen to announcers whine about fouls actually being called is tiring. It's almost like the announcers like it when the rules aren't enforced and teams struggle to get to 60.

Between his free throws, turnovers and lack of passing ability Howard just isn't a very good offensive player unless he's shooting a crazy high percentage, which is harder for him to do now that he's a little older and had some injuries. He just doesn't have well rounded offensive skills compared many of the better big men.

Howard is still a very good defensive player and elite rebounder, but he's can't singlehandedly turn a bad defensive team into a good one (which is an impossibly high standard). I think the supporting cast he had in Orlando was better than a lot of people realized and it fit in well with what Howard was good at.

If this kind of year continues for Dwight, don't you have to kinda wonder if he was maybe more of a system guy? He's never really been the same since he got Van Gundy fired.

Manny kind of touched on it, but he also had back surgery around the time he got SVG fired. Probably no great mystery with him. He was young, healthy, and had a coach who knew how to use his talents optimally. Now he has none of the three and he is a merely very good player. Probably still worth his max deal, and Houston is playing pretty well despite a roster that still needs to be tweaked.

Surprised at how little commentary we've had on Kobe's return to practice.

He is ruthlessly destroying team chemistry as we speak. I mean, look at how Dwight Howard's and Earl Clark's numbers have spiked since getting away from him.

--

Jodie Meeks has been doing quite well by his own standards (hitting .481 on 3s) and Nick Young has been playing pretty well for being Nick Young. OTOH, the Lakers are about 24th or 25th in ORTG, so Bryant should be able to help there if his health allows for it. But the Lakers DRTG is actually better than last year, which is probably a little having Rambis coach the D and a lot getting Kobe and Nash off the floor and not having Steve Blake trying to check 2s.

[671] Every place I've read had people taking about enforcement of the new hand checking rules making for a brutally called game. I think it's necessary, but the adjustment is far from smooth, and in the short term making for a worse product. I hope things smooth themselves out.

Chicago Bulls: Saw the game vs. Indy. People were saying that Rose was "back." It didn't really look that way to me, just looked like he hit a lot of 3s. The pre-game is still one of the best experiences in sports. Lights go down, Allan Parsons project comes up, people lose their ####. I haven't heard an arena get as loud as they did for D-Rose's intro. Best food in the Association.

He's getting closer. On an offensive rebound he soared over Hibbert and he made what I think was his first mid-range floater since the Knicks game. Teams are just daring him to shoot from deep and even with all the end of shot clock chucks he's forced to take as the #1 option he's now at 34% for the season. He's still missing about half the layups he usually makes but zero turnovers against Indy was a major step forward IMO.

Luol Deng is playing like a man on a mission although it's becoming clear that him and Butler are redundant. Thibs ran out a Hinrich/Rose/Deng/Noah/Boozer lineup that was deadly.

Oh, for Moses: Mirotic is apparently making it known he's coming over to the NBA next year, so that's good news.

Between his free throws, turnovers and lack of passing ability Howard just isn't a very good offensive player unless he's shooting a crazy high percentage, which is harder for him to do now that he's a little older and had some injuries. He just doesn't have well rounded offensive skills compared many of the better big men.

Howard is still a very good defensive player and elite rebounder, but he's can't singlehandedly turn a bad defensive team into a good one (which is an impossibly high standard). I think the supporting cast he had in Orlando was better than a lot of people realized and it fit in well with what Howard was good at.

certainly Howard's offensive skill set especially in this day and age where big man's offensive role and skills are evolving is not particularly good, and perhaps worse that he doesn't stick with what he's best at (aka pick and roll) well. But everything is relative here, if he hits his free throws more like 60% (which is at least within the realm of possibility) and generally just finish dunks and oops, that would still make him a pretty huge value offensive player in a relative sense.

His passing ability isn't great, but maybe undersold at this point, he doesn't have great hands but tend to see where his teammates are at well, too bad he doesn't use that same ability to see double teams coming nearly as well. the single biggest issue with Dwight post game is not actually his post move, it's that he gets killed by blind side double team a lot, but I think part of this has to be on his teammates.

Defensively, certainly the rest of the Rockets need to get better, Omer Asik is something of a savant in terms of positional defense and even he could only drag the team to above average when he's on the floor . the same thing with Dwight, at this point they could be maybe a top 10 ish defense when he's on the floor, the problem is if they're trading Asik, or if they end up going small ball for much of the game . it's a problem.

But overall watching the Rockets, the lack of defensive communication is stunning at times, Howard gets caught inbetween so much on plays, no one box out properly and they end up giving up an excessive amount of offensive rebounds (lost in this is that Houston actually keeps their opposing field goal percentage really low, though part of that is because other teams just rain 3s against them.)

Again, I feel that seems to be 50% chemistry and 50% effort on Houston's part (lack there of that is.) Harden's getting crap on a lot lately but he actually have a lot of spurts where he defends well, blocking jump shots and everything, it's too bad those spurts come inbetween many longer spurts where he's either not crossed half court or simply gave very half arse effort . Parsons is guilty of that too though he's even more overworked than Harden.

It would help if McHale has a bit more williness to just sit Harden and Parsons a bit more, especially when their defensive effort goes to hell. he need to trust his other guys can score (And in reality, they probably can. especially if it's just short stretches.)

You have to wonder if we will be able to give anything. Has he even seen the court since that catastrophic injury a few years back? If he can bounce back to near what he was before it gives the wolves another wing off the bench. That could be useful and makes them deeper.

Holy crap, the Clips play no defense at all. That breakdown on the in-bounds play at the end of the game was unforgivable. I thought Doc was a great coach? It looks like all of the Celtics defensive strength came from the personnel, because whatever coaching Rivers brought with him from Boston isn't guarding dick.

Chicago Bulls: Saw the game vs. Indy. People were saying that Rose was "back." It didn't really look that way to me, just looked like he hit a lot of 3s. The pre-game is still one of the best experiences in sports. Lights go down, Allan Parsons project comes up, people lose their ####. I haven't heard an arena get as loud as they did for D-Rose's intro. Best food in the Association.

I blame Stacey King for the "back" stuff. Every half decent play that Rose makes, we get an excited and repeated "He's baaaaackkkk." Awful. Another sub-par game for Rose last night against the Horcats. If Rose hadn't looked so good during the preseason - and I know it's preseason, but he's not playing the same way yet - I'd understand this prolonged slump/readjustment period. It's getting annoying now.

No one mentioned that Thibs put Rose and Noah back into that game Saturday with over 5 mins left and the game already in blowout mode (and had been that way since before halftime). Pacers had already removed their starters. It was pointless, reckless, and yet nothing came of it. But those add up, and it's incredibly short sighted and arrogant of Thibs to continue to do stuff like that.

Luol Deng is playing like a man on a mission although it's becoming clear that him and Butler are redundant. Thibs ran out a Hinrich/Rose/Deng/Noah/Boozer lineup that was deadly.

The redundant thing is becoming SOP around here, and I don't agree. I think Butler could take over at the 3 next year if the Bulls got a real SG - or I guess if someone wanted to trade for Luol now. But for now, I still would rather they play together and keep Hinrich's backup minutes limited. I think almost all struggles of the offense - or Deng and Butler not completely meshing - is on Rose's playing into shape and overall unfamiliarity with him. I think it'll come around in time.

Oh, for Moses: Mirotic is apparently making it known he's coming over to the NBA next year, so that's good news.

This is what we've been hoping/expecting for a while. It'll be interesting what the Bulls do and where they see him slotting in. But don't want to get too far ahead of myself here.

Either way, it seems the O'Neal injury isn't as bad as it first looked and he could be back pretty soon.

Yeah, he's day to day. The kid the brought up from Santa Cruz is fine for a few games. Things are going too well for the Dubs in the early going. Iguodala looks great, Klay Thompson keeps improving, Bogut seems healthy...I'm very nervous. I wonder, do we support all the same teams?

According to the NY Post, the NBA held meetings to discuss whether Chris Smith's place on the Knicks' roster was an attempt to circumvent the salary cap and concluded that it wasn't. How they could have reached that conclusion is beyond me.

Burden of proof?
It's circumstantially clear that that's what's going on.
However, it's not like Smith has no resume - he was more or less an average guard in the Big East - and you could argue that he looks like a better prospect than Mario West did, to name one.

There's also the he was the worst player on their Summer League team in '12 then was the worst player on their Summer League team in '13 then was the worst and least played player on the '13 preseason team before they allowed his guaranteed contract to vest part.

There's also the he was the worst player on their Summer League team in '12 then was the worst player on their Summer League team in '13 then was the worst and least played player on the '13 preseason team before they allowed his guaranteed contract to vest part.

I would guess that Knicks history makes it impossible to prove that this was corruption and not incompetence

Zach Lowe with a good piece on the Rockets over at Grantland stealing from our discussion on the last page.

EDIT: His characterizations of Lin's and Parson's defensive deficiencies did leave me feeling a bit queasy. For Parsons he commented on how he has been a minus on that end despite being a high IQ player and for Lin he blamed it in part on Lin being at a quickness disadvantage. Not going to comment on Parsons' basketball IQ, but I actually think Lin's quickness is one of the strengths of his game and would instead place the blame for his defensive issues squarely on his ball watching (Lowe mentions this).

Not sure if this'll make sense/be right, but I think there's a difference between defensive quickness and quickness on offense (when you can "move to your strengths"/preplan to an extent). The ability to move well laterally matters more with the latter as well.

As biased and snotty as so many Lakers fans obviously are about Howard, some of the stuff in the Lowe piece was being said in LakerBlogLand before the season to try to make it seem like Howard's bailing would actually be a plus and that Howard would fail in Houston: he is still on a team that revolves around a high-usage 2 with defensive issues, still on a team with questionable overall perimeter defense, still on a team with another 5 who doesn't really fit with him, which creates a disruption, still has issues converting in the post and apparently demands a certain amount of post touches for emotional/motivational reasons, and still isn't the same guy since the back injury.

The differences, of course, are that he is on a younger, BETTER team with these issues, that he likes the coach and the high-usage 2 on a personal level, at least for now, and that he CHOSE this team. Also, things may look very different without Asik if they can make a good move there, although they will probably miss Asik's D.

Even with all of that, and even with Jordan Hill playing great ball at the moment, unless the Lakers somehow come up with a huge get in FA (James or Love), Howard's departure will probably continue to be a major reason the Lakers will be on the deck for awhile.

I happened to flip to the Rockets game, and I think we have a new candidate for dumbest player. In three consecutive possessions, Phil Pressey made a dreadfully bad decision:

1) on a fast break where the closest defender was 10 behind him, Instead of making a unmolested layup, Pressey instead decides to whip an over-the-shoulder pass behind him to a trailing Brandon Bass. Bass catches the ball but has to contend with three defenders who were in his immediate vicinity. But he bails out Pressey by overpowering everybody and dunking it

2). On the following Rockets possession, Pressey makes a nifty strip of Howard in the post and ignites a 3 on 1 fast break. But he leaves his feet and throws the ball out of bounds by overleading a wide open Green in the right corner

3). After a rockets miss on the following possession, the outlet pass goes to Pressey, who then throws the ball out of bounds again by trying to throw an impossible lead pass to Green over two defenders who had the passing lane sealed off.

Well that was a disastrous game from the Celtics, at least they can look forward to the next two game against the Spurs and Pacers ... welp.

As for Pressy, an undrafted rookie sucking early on? I'm SHOCKED. if Rondo wasn't hurt he'd be in the D-league and we can get a better assessment next year. Jeremy Lin sucked badly in the first year too, that turned out just fine.

Love will bail if he doesn't think the Wolves will be in the mix to play at a meaningful level. If he does think they can play at a meaningful level, he probably won't bail. It's not that complicated. But even if he does leave, he won't necessarily go to the Lakers--which is what Harper's article was about.

Hooo, boy. Granted, Iona ain't stiff competition, but anybody drafting in the lottery next year needs to dig up the highlights of Joel Embiid tonight. 7/7, 16 points, 13 rebounds in 26 minutes. 7'0, 7'4 wingspan, moves like a gazelle and grew up playing soccer so he's got nice footwork. And some pretty impressive touch...

Avery Bradley with a 5-22 and 0 assists - that's his fifth straight game with none and leaves him with just 3 in his last 8 games - despite playing more than 20 minutes in every one of those games.

To be fair, he did a pretty good job on Harden though (just 15 points in 31 min and 7 turnover.), he's clearly being asked to do way too much, like if the Thunder ask Thabo Sefolosha to be the point guard.

Also, Kelly Olynek in this game had a layup blocked by Jeremy Lin from behind, and then had another break away layup blocked by Donatas ...... not a great sign.

The Rockets still getting killed by offensive rebounds though , this need to be addressed sooner or later .

[728] I've been really impressed by his court vision/passing ability when I've watched him play.

Yeah, I think he managed something like five assists against Duke last week.

Embiid is tantalizing because he's "raw," but not in the way you'd expect. Like, the guy obviously belongs on the court - he knows how to move, he's fluid and agile, he has great awareness, and he isn't unskilled: he's got some nifty tricks in the post and nice touch on his shots. It's just that he's been playing basketball for such a short time that he doesn't often put it all together in a game yet - there's too much to process all at once.

I have a feeling (okay, a wishful one) that somewhere around halfway or two-thirds into the season he's going to become an absolute force. If he hits his ceiling I don't think I even take Wiggins over him.

In June 1993, about five years after Shaw was a first-round pick in the 1988 draft, Shaw’s father fell asleep at the wheel after driving all night. As the car rolled over, it sent everyone — Shaw’s father, mother, sister and niece — from the vehicle. Only Brianna — Shaw’s 11-month-old niece, who was named after Shaw — survived, and she was transported to the hospital in critical condition.

the sixers signed lorenzo brown (PG from NC state) and eliott williams (SG from memphis) today after waiving darius morris and kwame brown.

i don't think morris really deserved to get released but that's not a big loss and if it means more PT for tony wroten, that's not a bad thing. also, hopefully this means that arnett moultrie is close to getting back on the court.

Re: Embiid, is there any clear evidence that guys who started playing later actually develop more dramatically in the NBA than guys who have been playing their whole lives? The idea makes intuitive sense, but it seems like for every Ibaka there's a Thabeet. Has someone studied this?

76ers are likely to be churning the bottom of the roster a lot this season. Pretty much agree with STEAGLES on Morris.

There really was no reason to keep Kwame Brown on the roster for the pre-season other than to have another guy who's picture could be up in Bilbao. there was no reason to sign him in the first place, since he's not actually good at anything, except maybe losing.

There really was no reason to keep Kwame Brown on the roster for the pre-season other than to have another guy who's picture could be up in Bilbao. there was no reason to sign him in the first place, since he's not actually good at anything, except maybe losing.

I think one thing we need to keep in mind for the Rockets is that they seems more likely to upgrade someone that can hurt them in the playoffs than upgrading themselves with an Asik trade at this point. for example, if Asik somehow ends up in OKC that'll be devastating for their hopes of deep playoff runs. which is a dilemma they have here. (i still feel that in the perfect world they try to incorporate him back into the lineup while Jones grow into a really legit player.)

I also like to ask you a question on this part, since from what I'm seeing from the Rockets, the strangest thing is that they're giving up an extraordinary amount of long offensive rebounds, part of that is because due to Dwight and their iffy perimeter defenders teams decide to simply bomb away from 3 at will which leads to all those long rebounds, but even on a rate basis the Rockets are converting on a surprisingly poor amount of them, is this a skill thing or a luck thing?

Re: Embiid, is there any clear evidence that guys who started playing later actually develop more dramatically in the NBA than guys who have been playing their whole lives? The idea makes intuitive sense, but it seems like for every Ibaka there's a Thabeet. Has someone studied this?

I think the idea is more that they have more theoretical upside because they don't have well developed basketball skills already. Does it mean they *will* develop them? No - but there is a source of possible upside that, say, a Jabari Parker, who has played as a kid, in AAU, in HS, in camps, etc. does not have, and given good instruction and simply more time playing, *could* develop pretty fast.